Article carriers that are secured to exterior motor vehicle body panels to improve the cargo capacity of a motor vehicle are quite popular. Generally, the article carriers comprise a pair of rails that support or carry a pair of crossbars. The ends of the crossbars are secured to the rails which, in turn, are mounted directly to the vehicle body panel. However, such article carriers having fixedly positioned crossbars have limited utility in that they may not be adjusted for tight engagement of particularly shaped cargo, and additional restraints must be provided for securing the cargo to the article carrier.
In some motor vehicle markets, it has been known to provide the longitudinal rails as part of the finished body trim on the body panels. In such an instance, the crossbars are often available as options that may be purchased separately from the vehicle if the utility of an article carrier is desired by a customer. With these racks, the crossbars are particularly sized for the spacing between the rails on a particular vehicle installation. The ends of each crossbar are particularly adapted for attachment to a particularly sized rail spacing matched to a particularly sized vehicle body panel. As a result, the crossbars are not interchangeable between the various article carriers. Moreover, such crossbars are useable only where the longitudinal rails are aligned in the parallel arrangement, and would not fit an article carrier where the alignment of the rails is not parallel, for example, where the rails are aligned to match a particularly configured body panel or styling line.